Socially Responsible Impact Investing

Why invest with the Mountain Sky United Methodist Foundation?

The main reason is that all of the Foundation’s investments align with the qualities of Impact Investing norms and trends. Or, in other words, sustainable and socially responsible investing.

Our primary investment manager, Wespath Investment Management, is the former General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church. Wespath, as a result of our United Methodist beliefs and commitments, is a founding signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.

Through the advocacy work of our investment managers, the Foundation’s sustainable investment strategies are in alignment with the Social Principles of the United Methodist church in these ways:

Social Screening: NO investments in companies whose revenues exceed 10% from any of these industries: gambling, tobacco, alcohol, weapons, pornography, and for-profit prisons.

Proxy Voting: in accordance with our faith, as found in the Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions.

Advocacy: to identify areas of improvements that corporations could make in Environmental, Social, or Governance matters; as shareholders (owners) of corporations, we have a responsibility to use this leverage so that our voices can be heard to make the world a better place.

Service, role, and relationship to the churches who invest

Everything we do is to benefit churches, not ourselves.

Fees from investments go to support the missional work of the Foundation, in contrast to a more traditional investment manager whose fees provide shareholder dividends, agent commissions, and executive bonuses.

The Foundation is a Fiduciary – meaning that it has the church’s best interests in mind. For example, some of our investments have higher fees than others. The Foundation will never make investment suggestions based on this fact, but rather consider the purpose of each account in helping a church choose which investments are most beneficial for the church.